Military Training, Maintenance Hit Hardest by $37 Billion Cuts

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Pentagon operations and maintenance
spending will be hit hardest by the $37.2 billion of automatic
cuts known as sequestration, according to a report by the
Defense Department’s comptroller.

Military personnel cuts would account for $20.3 billion,
procurement accounts would be reduced by $9.8 billion, and
research funding would lose $6 billion. Construction, housing
and management funds would absorb the rest of the cuts.

The report is a more detailed breakdown of sequestration’s
impact, by appropriation account, than a document sent to
Congress earlier this week.

The previous report, called “DD 1414, Base For
Reprogramming,” is being used as a baseline that defense
committees will review as they consider a Pentagon request to
move $9.6 billion between categories and mostly into readiness
accounts.

The new “Report on the Joint Committee Sequestration For
FY 2013” is a more explicit and clearer summary. It also
outlines how much unobligated money from previous years is
available in each program to mitigate the cuts.

Of the $9.8 billion in procurement cuts, the three largest
appropriations accounts to be reduced by sequestration are Navy
shipbuilding, Air Force aircraft and Navy aircraft, according to
the report.